Tummery Athletic 4 Lisbellaw United 2

TUMMERY Athletic remain unbeaten in the league as they made it three wins out of four with a 4-2 win over Lisbellaw United at Crawford’s Lane on Saturday.

Early goals from Aidy McCaffrey and Michael Logue had the Dromore outfit 2-0 ahead at the interval, but Lisbellaw made much more of a game of it in the second half, with Paul Eliott halving the deficit.

McCaffrey restored Tummery’s two-goal advantage only for a Ryan Lindsay rocket to again bring the ’Law back into the contest.

However, McCaffrey went on to complete his hat-trick as Tummery secured the points.

Tummery player-Manager Ryan Hanna though was disappointed with his side’s second-half display.

“It was something similar to last week when we were good in the first half and created chances, but we just didn’t perform in the second half.

“Lisbellaw came out after the break and they wanted it more than us, but we had a couple of moments of quality and that sealed the points.

“The second-half performance annoyed me, but hopefully with the gaelic now finished up, we can get a good run at it in terms of having the boys at training,” said Hanna.

Lisbellaw boss Kyle McCleery was in no doubt that his side deserved to be behind at the break, but he was much happier with their second-half display.

“The first half was as bad as I’ve seen us play in a long, long time. We were really, really poor, and I felt that as a whole the first half was a poor advertisement for the Fermanagh and Western. We went in at the break two goals down, and deservedly so,” he said.

A stern dressing down though got the ’Law fired up for the second half, according to McCleery.

“My brother, Glenn, tore into them at half time and we were like a different team in the second half.

“We were on the front foot from the first whistle and we kept them pinned in. We got the goal back, and I felt we were in the ascendancy, but then they broke and made it 3-1.

“We kept battling and pulled another goal back through an absolute screamer by Ryan Lindsay, but we had left ourselves too much to do after the first half.

“The second half display, though, gives us something to build on and if we had played anywhere near that in the first half, we could have got something out of the game,” he added.

The home side though were quickly out of the blocks and with only seven minutes gone they broke the deadlock as McCaffrey recorded the first of his trio of goals on the day, clipping home a free kick via the inside of the post to get the home side off to the perfect start.

Moments later, Emmett McNabb let fly with a 25-yard effort that was saved at the second attempt by the ’Law netminder before a second goal did arrive in the 13th minute.

Declan McNulty’s corner was flicked on and Logue got on the end of it to fire home to double the home side’s advantage.

Lisbellaw’s best chance of the half fell to kelvin McElroy, who had an effort cleared off the line, but it was the home side who looked the likely to add to their tally.

Kevin McAleer was sent away on the wing and his cross was met by McCaffrey but his effort flew narrowly wide of the post as it remained 2-0 at the interval.

With the Lisbellaw players receiving a rocket from their management, they came out all fired up for the second half as they pressed Tummery all over the pitch.

The home side, though, still remained a threat and they almost bagged a third when Aaron McNulty released Declan McNulty, but he hit the post with a strike from an acute angle.

It was the visitors who were to draw blood next, however, as Elliott made it 2-1. Sam Lindsay had a header come back off the bar and, following a goal mouth scramble, Elliott tucked the ball home.

At this point the Lisbellaw tails were up but they got hit with a sucker blow as Tummery struck to make it 3-1.

Emmet McNabb put McCaffrey through and he produced a typical clinical finish, to restore the two-goal lead for the home side.

Back again though came Lisbellaw, and with 14 minutes left on the clock, they netted their second to get them right back into it once more.

A corner was headed out to the edge of the box by a Tummery defender and Ryan Lindsay crashed an unstoppable drive to the top corner of the net, giving Tummery goalkeeper Tim Harney no chance.

Buoyed by this, Lisbellaw pushed for an equaliser but with 86 minutes gone Tummery put the game to bed as McCaffrey completed his hat-trick to seal the points.

Ronan McNabb skipped around a couple of challenges before playing a pinpoint cross to McCaffrey who turned the defender inside out before finishing to the corner of the net.

Lisbellaw did feel that they had a third when a Matthew Woods header appeared to have crossed the line before being scooped clear by Harney, but the referee disagreed as the contest finished 4-2 in the home side’s favour.